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It’s a Done Deal

By ABlessedMan on December 26, 2014

When is a guarantee not a guarantee??

Ephesians 1:13-14
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

You were sealed. The Holy Spirit is your guarantee UNTIL THE REDEMPTION.

You CAN’T walk away. You are not your own any longer. You are His.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

This isn’t about loss of free will. This is about a changed spirit.

When we read in 1 John 3:7-9 —

Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

Verse 9 says that if you have been born of God you CANNOT sin. Don’t we sin, though, daily??

Paul, in Romans 7, tells us this:

Romans 7:15-20
For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

I know what is good and righteous, yet I don’t do it. But look at verse 17: “It is no longer I who [sin], but sin that dwells in me.”

You see you don’t need to turn away from salvation to become lost. On a DAILY basis you sin, and ANY sin is enough to condemn you. It doesn’t take walking away — you don’t qualify with your very actions DAILY.

Except that we have Christ.

Jesus’ blood washes us clean. It ALREADY paid for ALL our sins, past, present and future. You are saved by GRACE, not because YOU DID anything, other than to accept the gift when God gave you enough faith to make a choice and that He called you first. Alone, you couldn’t make such a decision.

Don’t confuse this with Calvinism, where God chooses who will be saved and who will not; where there is no true free will.

No, the final decision is yours. Always has been.

Deuteronomy 30:19
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

Your choice. First God calls and gives you a measure of faith with which to make your choice. It is a free choice, for He has given you a free will. You choose. He gives a hint: choose Life!!

Once you do that you change (it is called regeneration). Your spirit is forever changed. Your desires are changed. Anyone who seems like they walked away later were never regenerated in the first place. Their “salvation” was intellectual and not spiritual.

And once changed you begin a process of growth called sanctification. Are you supposing that one can be regenerated and undergo some time of sanctification and then walk away? What happens then? Does the work of sanctification melt away from them? Fall off them? There is NO biblical proof of such. Is there any teaching of being unregenerated? No!

What there is biblically is the story of the prodigal son. He wandered away, but was STILL a son. There is the story of the lost sheep that wandered away and the shepherd will go out and bring the wandering sheep back home.

Once saved you are changed. Regenerated. Sanctification begins. You are robed in righteousness.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

You accept the gift. Otherwise it is GRACE. Father God made Jesus to be sin for us. An exchange occurs. So that: we might become the righteousness of. God in Him.

I don’t see your effort in there. At all. Once you accept the gift you are purchased for a price. You are His. You belong to Him. The Holy Spirit seals you. The Holy Spirit is your guarantee of salvation from now until the day of redemption.